The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

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Friday, January 22, 2016

Revealed: Who's funding Israel's far-left? - Ari Yashar

by Ari Yashar

Leftist NGOs have driven public discourse, but just which foreign governments and foundations prop them up? New database discloses all.

As radical leftist NGOs continue to garner attention for their
politicized impact on public discourse, Jerusalem-based research
institute NGO Monitor this week released a database revealing just where
they get their massive funds from.

The database discloses
all grants reported annually by a full 27 Israeli NGOs between the
years 2012 and 2014, sorting the data between private and governmental
donors, and likewise indicating funds from church groups.

"The information in this database is crucial for the advancement of
democratic transparency and accountability," said NGO Monitor President
Professor Gerald Steinberg. "Clearly Israelis are attentive to grants
given by foreign governments to political NGOs. Accurate data on this
issue is important, but in recent weeks rumors and misinformation have
dominated the public discourse."

"This resource provides the facts and figures currently missing from
the discussion. The data provided can inform the debate over funding
guidelines, and make it more accurate."

From the findings of the database, several crucial points become clear.

A staggering total of over 261 million shekels ($66 million) was
received by the 27 NGOs in the course of the two years, and of that
amount 65% - consisting of nearly 170 million shekels - came from
foreign governments. Another 34%, nearly 89 million shekels, was raked
in from private donors and foundations, while the last 1%, over
two-and-a-half million shekels, came from unclear sources.

A full 20 NGOs out of the total 27 investigated received over half of their funding from foreign governments.

The three with the highest proportion of foreign governmental funding
were Yesh Din at 93.5%, Terrestrial Jerusalem with 91.2%, and Emek
Shaveh that got 90.2% of its funds from foreign states.

The NGO which received the largest amount of foreign state funds was B'Tselem.

Follow the money

NGO Monitor took a look at what foreign governments are funding
Israel's radical left, and found that they include 21 governmental and
intergovernmental entities, including the EU, UN, and the Human Rights
and International Humanitarian law Secretariat, which is itself funded
by Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The largest donor to the NGOs was the EU, providing a full 28 million
shekels, while Norway and Germany came in second and third.

As for the private funding, the London-based Sigrid Rausing Trust
topped the list of donating foundations by providing 14% of the private
total, closely followed by the New Israel Fund at 12%, and the Open
Society Institute at 7%.

No less than 19% of the total funds, consisting of just over 50
million shekels, came in from Christian groups, most of which themselves
receive large governmental funding. Another 5% of the total came from
private religious institutions or donors.

The issue of foreign funding is particularly timely, as Israel is looking to pass an NGO transparency law modeled on laws in the US,
which would obligate any NGOs that receive 50% or more of their funding
from foreign states to open their finances to public scrutiny, as well
as to identify themselves as "foreign agents" when lobbying in the
Knesset.

Several radical leftist NGOs such as B'Tselem and Breaking the
Silence have come under particular scrutiny in recent weeks, after an
investigative TV report revealed how leading activists hand over Palestinian Arabs who want to sell land to Jews to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which summarily tortures and executes them.

The full report can be read here.Ari YasharSource: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/206826#.VqFBWlKzdds Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.